Worm Squadron Episode X: Earth Worm Down
by reagan64
Summary: The epic finale of the Wrom Squadron series! Armed with his new Super Worm Destroyer, Grand Admiral Worm plans a lightning offensive into the heart of the Worm Repulic. Only Commander Wantilles and his pilots can save tue Worms from destruction.
1. A View of A Wreck

It was a beautiful morning in the Worm Capital of Wouruscant; sadly, it would the last many would see. Hospitals were filled to capacity by those injured in the termite attack, many in their last hours of life.  
Commander Dirt Wantilles stared out a window in the lonely corridors of one of these clinics, observing the devastation. They destroyed everything, he thought. Why? Why was so much leveled? And with the most advanced passive defense system in the galaxy! Grand Admiral Worm knew what he was doing, it could not be denied now. But all that was in the past, he had more important things to worry about, like Termite raids on Worm shipping, or the defense of other sectors. There was even talk of moving the government to Walderann; that would be Worm's next target.  
  
"Captain, enemy ships in Sector 47."  
"Watch them, A-1 move in to engage," ordered Captain Welleon from the bridge of the Wormeara. He watched as twenty V-Wings approached the Wormeara to be met by fifteen Termite Avengers, after fierce dog fighting, fourteen V-Wings made it through and unleashed a volley of concussion missiles into a Turbolaser battery, knocking out several guns.  
The defending ship swung around and forced the V-Wings to virtually collide with the Avengers. Several V-Wings were knocked out before they could retreat.  
Worm came up to the bridge to survey the damage. "Fourteen guns knocked out, three batteries with no power..."  
Welleon grimaced. "When will the Revenge taskforce catch up?"  
"In time, Captain, in time," replied Worm. "Assembling the fleet would cause too much attention to us."  
"I see."  
  
Dirt raced home in a borrowed Skua, the new craft was a whole lot faster than his W-Wing, and still had tough shields...but it wasn't the same. Dirt was greeted by Air Controllers and landed at a serviceable landing platform on Wouruscant.  
Technicians removed the cameras from the Skua, and Dirt dashed to Admiral Wackbar and the Worm High Council.  
I saw..." he gasped, ships...an entire taskforce..."  
"How many ships?" Wackbar asked. Dirt scowled.  
"Six Worm Destroyers, ten Wormnaughts, and an unknown cruiser." He had hit the mark.  
"A new capital ship?"  
"Yes, easily as big as a Scarab Battlecruiser." Big and black.  
The shocked council was speechless. The "defunct:" Termite fleet was not capable of building such a ship, especially in secret. Weia broke the silence.  
  
"Commander," she asked. "Do you know how Worm got past our shields?"  
"No, but I saw something small and dark buzzing around. I couldn't get it on scanner, only visually. The meeting ended without a word. It was a few days later he learned the government had moved out of the palace and into a converted Worm Cruiser called the Shaman, headed for Walderann. The panic was real, the danger was real.  
  
"All fighters in position?"  
"Yes, sir." Welleon replied.  
"Good," said Worm as he prepared to commence an attack on the Worm planet of Wamino. Four Banshee stealth corvettes darted out of the Wormeara's hangar on their way to strategic targets, including a Skua factory, and a Relay Station.  
The Banshees ingresses toward their targets, unleashing lead rain on the Worm installations, huge explosions tore into the night sky. Red flashes engulfed the towns and villages on the planets, four W-Wings took off to engage the attackers, but were easily crushed by Termite Avengers; Worm saw all of this from the Wormeara.  
"Fore batteries, target those warehouses!" he barked to the port crew pit. "We can catch some Worms on the ground." Within minutes both warehouses were rubble and the Wormeara departed for its next destination. 


	2. The Shaman

"Sir, we have a report from the front."  
Captain Mitchell of the modified Worm Cruiser Shaman had anticipated this message for some time; he awaited the arrival of the officer of the watch.  
"Yes, Lieutenant?" he asked the young man.  
"Sir," he began, "The Wormeara was sighted near Wamino; it attacked the planet and destroyed the relay station and Skua factory." The captain scowled.  
"The factory? Damn, return to your duties, I have to brief the council," and with that he set off for the war room.  
He found Councilor Weia, Admiral Wackbar, and Won Wothma in a meeting.  
"Sorry to bother you Councilors, there was a hit-and-run attack on Wamino, the relay station and a factory were destroyed by a Worm Destroyer." Three pairs of eyes turned to Wackbar.  
"Worm is er, up to his usual tricks. Was there any loss of life?"  
"No sir" Mitchell replied.  
"Good, get those factories back on line, and deploy a battle station." Wackbar paused for a moment. "And fix that damn holonet!"  
  
"Sir, the sentry ships have a message for you." Welleon and Worm turned to meet Wishel, holding a data pad. Worm was the first to speak.  
"This better be important Commander," he said coldly.  
"S-Sir, the Stormhawk and the Iron Maiden report a Worm Cruiser twenty light-years from Walderann. We think it's the Shaman.  
"Hmmmm. The Shaman; that ship is carrying bioforms Wackbar and Weia." He turned to Welleon.  
"Captain?"  
"Yes sir," Welleon answered his commander.  
"Set course for Walderann. Inform the sentry ships they are clear to engage at will." Welleon cringed at the sound of the order.  
"Sir?"  
"Yes Captain?"  
Sir, with all due respect the sentry ships won't stand a chance against a Worm Cruiser. Can't an attack wait?"  
"On the contrary," Worm replied. "Its standard procedure to remove turbolasers from ships employed in diplomatic ferrying. Even if the Shaman hasn't bee modified, there probably are not enough worms on board to man half the guns."  
  
All was quiet on the bridge of the Watana fleet Wormnaught Stormhawk; from the view ports Commander Wivile could see the Iron Maiden power up its guns. In thirty minutes the two ships would drop back into realspace and commence their attack on the Worm Cruiser Shaman.  
Wishel monitored the many consoles at his command station; all lights were green. It was now twenty minutes to realspace. No one on the bridge spoke a word, until Wishel keyed the intercom and broke the silence.  
"Battery commanders, power up the guns, Ion cannon stand-bye." He paused and stared at the clock, three minutes.  
"Clear the bridge for battle, set a vector to the defending cruiser as soon as possible, inform the Iron Maiden that they are all clear." He heard another voice.  
"Yes sir, setting vector three-zero-zero, four clicks to target."  
Wishel grimaced, it would be a tough battle, as he thought this the starlines turned back into dots and he could the see the massive hulk of a Worm Cruiser, the Turbolasers began firing.  
  
The sirens wailed an ear-splitting cry as worm after worm raced to stations, but with only seven manned batteries, the battle was already over.  
Weia heard the sirens and gasped, the Shaman was under attack. She raced to the bridge to find Wackbar and Captain Mitchel hovering over a holographic read-out of the surrounding sectors. She saw the Wormnaughts approach.  
Damn, they found us. She watched in horror as the Shaman and the Termites exchanged fire, for several minutes this went on, after about ten minutes, by that time only two batteries were left firing, and they had lost most of their starboard shields. The Wormnaughts were taking damage, but no system failures. Weia quickly whispered in Captain Mitchell's ears.  
"Yes Councilor," he said. He turned to his crew. "Give me a vector to the closer Wormnaught," he barked.  
"Four-three-two," came the reply. Mitchell smiled. "Set course to the vector, make sure our stern is by the bridge, and then concentrate your fire on the bridge deflector shield generators. And send a distress signal."  
The Shaman slowly inched forward, it assumed the desired position and the Stormhawk, not wanting to hit its sister ship, stopped firing. The Iron Maiden was on its own to defend its shields from a barrage of fire. After a few minutes, both ships were shieldless, and the Shaman had a leaking hyperdrive. Weia noticed a bright flash in the distance.  
Suddenly, four W-Wings and three Skuas formed on the Iron Maiden, unleashing their complement of missiles, the Wormnaught never had a chance. Worm Squadron had arrived.  
  
After blasting through a Wormnaught Dirt felt lively and gay, the melancholy of the past few days had subsided.  
"I've got to hand it to ya Ring Leader; you've got some damn good ships! Look out for the fire." Several minutes later the Stormhawk was beginning to break apart. The W-Wings and the Skuas checked the area for other ships, and then flew around the Shaman to survey the damage. It was bad.  
The ship was badly scared, two main beams had cracked, and there was a coolant leak; the main reactor was in danger of going critical.  
Realizing the danger the Shaman's passengers were in, Dirt switched on his comlink, his voice crackled over the radio.  
"Shaman, this is Worm Leader, repeat; Shaman, this is Worm Leader." He paused. After a few minutes he heard a reply, it was Weia's voice.  
"Yes Dirt, how bad is the damage?" she asked. Dirt forced over a sigh.  
"Severe, I'm already seeing numerous power ire-"He never finished his sentence. A Worm Destroyer had arrived, and from it's horrendous fire, it was out for blood.  
"Bad news everybody, you'll have to abandon ship, Shaman?"  
"We heard, we're departing on a yacht."  
"Roger that," Dirt replied.  
Dirt could only watch as the massive Worm Destroyer began firing, small explosions on the Shaman became bigger ones. A squadron of Termite Interceptors was bearing down on Dirt, adjusting laser levels, he quickly knocked two out, then zoomed toward Won Wothma's yacht.  
Two Termites formed up, and began firing at the defenseless yacht, Dirt got a lock on the rear, took a deep breath...and blew it out of the sky, the second came down easy. Then he heard the blast.  
Oh my dirt... he thought; luckily he saw a small yacht emerging from the debris, a few turbolaser shots hit it, nothing its shields couldn't handle, in the blink of an eye it jumped. 


	3. Melancholy

The glum melancholy in the Termite Navy went deeper than the food, was more horrible than the booze in the mess halls. But there was still hope in the higher ranks that the fleet, led by the newly de-classified Super Worm Destroyer could crush any resistance the Worms could offer.  
Worm paced the deck for several minutes, occasionally looking up to check the status of the ship or of a campaign. He eventually spoke to Captain Welleon.  
"Don't worry, once we crush the Worms at Wendor and Sigma-19 we can start taking planets and destroy the rebellions," he said softly.  
"Yes, sir," was all Welleon could say. Wendor, the site of the death of the Empire. No, the birth of the new.  
  
All was quiet on the yacht carrying the Worm High Council. All eyes were on the tactical display, showing the location of all Worm ships and stations, and new intelligence reports.  
Weia was deep in thought. You could tell it in eyes she was under immense strain, maintaining a fragile coalition of over a dozen breeds of Worms. The New Republic military was dangerously stretched. The new enemy armada was already making its presence felt. Three Worm Cruisers sent to investigate were effortlessly destroyed. Wackbar was reeling back, assembling all available ships to meet the enemy before they reached Walderann and the vital trade lanes of the Sigma-19 system. Something needed to be done fast.  
Sigma-7 is a quiet system, not much there, just the salt mines of Naha and the occasional trade convoy. It knew nothing of war or famine, no combat has taken place there since the Dirt Wars of the Old Republic.  
The Independent Mining Guild star sloop Autumn was on station, patrolling the system; it was an old ship, but still serviceable, she was known as a "five minute" ship because that is how long she would last in an engagement. The slow, lumbering box made its way.  
Captain Wuzzle was an experienced commander, he had commanded the Autumn for over ten years. A veteran of the Dirt Wars, he retired from the navy and joined the Independent Mining Guild. Little did he know the calm easiness of Sigma-7 would soon be broken.  
"Sir, contacts, three marks One-Four-Zero, ten clicks. Wuzzle frowned.  
"Fighter or capital?"  
"Wormnaughts sir," the crewman answered.  
Damn, it looks like trouble. "Hail unknown ships! Battlestations!" he barked. After a few minutes the Wormnaughts spoke at 7 clicks.  
"This is the Termite Wormnaught Redwood, power down and prepare to be boarded."  
Termites, every worm on the Autumn knew they did not stand a chance. Ten seconds passed in silence.  
"Repeat, power down or you will be fired upon." The sky was lit up by turbolaser fire. The Autumn left service the way it was meant to.  
  
The Worm High Council had settled in Walderann, capital of the Sigma-20 system. They were now running the war from the control room of the local military base. With ships and trained personnel scarce, all was in doubt. The fate of the galaxy hung in the balance.  
"Sir," A young voice piped," We have a message from the Independent Mining Guild." Admiral Wackbar looked up at the young face. Our youth, all that is left.  
"What is it corporal? What do they want now?"  
"Sir, they lost one of their Star Sloops in the Sigma-7 system," the next words did not come out easily everyone could tell. "It was attacked Termite ships."  
Weia's mouth dropped. "In the Sigma-7 system? Worm's ships are in the trade lanes!" All eyes turned to Wackbar.  
"We need ships and fast. And crews to man them."  
"But we don't have any!" Weia protested.  
"Well, there's Commodore Perry's taskforce in the Sigma-35 system, he's got a Worm Cruiser and a few frigates. Then there's the Inshore Squadron under Admiral Wormblower, he's got another Worm Cruiser and six frigates. Then there's two more cruisers in ordinary...I think I can scrape together a task force."  
"We don't have anybody to man them!"  
Won Wothma then spoke.  
"Gentleman, its official. Round up every merchant crewer on the planet and put them in ships and fast.  
The search went on; by day's end three hundred Worms had been found. Sixty Worms from the base volunteered. After Wackbar got everything together three days later they were still short of skilled crewers.  
Commodore Wick Perry and the now Admiral Woratio Wormblower stood on the bridge of the Worm Cruiser Just Cause. They had found five cruisers and eleven frigates, poultry at best.  
"Sir, the Admiral's yacht has arrived in the hanger bay.  
"Thank you Commander."  
Admiral Wackbar arrived on the bridge. He turned to Perry and Wormblower.  
"All ships in position?"  
"Yes sir." said Perry.  
"Damn!"  
Wackbar sighed deeply.  
"Stand by for lightspeed" 


	4. Unfortunate Events

Taskforce Delta arrived in the Sigma-19 system four hours after its departure from Walderann. No enemy ships were in sight.  
"Anything on sensors?" said Commodore Perry to an officer at a sensor console nearby. "No, Sir."  
Wackbar walked in. He looked at the sparsely populated bridge of the cruiser.  
"What have we got?" Admiral Wormblower replied.  
"We've got this cruiser, then there's my flagship the Nomad, Perry's flagship the Sparrowhawk, the Guernica, the Outrider, and the newly recommisioned Eténdard. Plus eleven frigates.  
"Let's hope Worm makes a tactical blunder, we need it.  
  
Welleon and Worm stood on the bridge of the Wormeara. The new fleet amazed even Worm, who had ordered the Emperor's Revenge's construction eighteen months before. It dwarfed his flagship.  
Suddenly, out of nowhere, alarms began to sound.  
"What the devil..." Worm and Welleon dashed to a nearby tactical readout. Enemy ships straight ahead.  
"Sir, W-Wings and Star Sloops straight ahead!"  
"Beat to Quarters! Battle stations!"  
The Termite armada unleashed six squadrons of Avengers and two Interceptor squadrons on the seven W-Wings and three Star Sloops. Wi thin minutes all the sloops had been destroyed and the four remaining W- Wings fled.  
Worm asked a crewer for a damage report.  
"We lost four fighters sir, and the Redwood's shields are at 98%."  
"Good, carry on."  
  
The ragtag Worm fleet advanced in a spearhead formation, arriving in the orbit of the planet Keeting. Still no Termite warships were to bee found. The bridge of the Just Cause was home to an atmosphere of apprehension of fear.  
Boom. The huge explosion sent a shockwave through the Just Cause, knocking personnel down and breaking glass containers.  
"What the devil..."  
"Sir," came the cry. "It's the Eténdard! She's gone!  
Wackbar, Perry, and Wormblower all looked through the windows in front of them. The once proud Cruiser was now reduced to flaming debris. Sensor data concluded that it was a mine.  
"All engines, Stop!" yelled Wackbar.  
"Sir, enemy ship!"  
Every Worm in the fleet looked up, there was the ship Dirt had described, it was big and black, with six bright red engines, it looked like a flying fortress. It was easily twice as large as an ordinary Worm Destroyer.  
More ships soon appeared; six Worm Destroyers led by the Wormeara arrived in a line perpendicular to the supership. The darkness of space lit up with turbolaser fire, the mines started detonating, and the explosions kept getting bigger. Wackbar and the other officers were blown away by the impact.  
"Launch fighters!" yelled Wormblower. "Get Worm Squad-".  
The incoming enemy fleet was huge, with most of their armament on the sides; the cruisers were caught in a trap. Worm hadn't made a blunder...they did. With the Termites on the other side of a minefield one shot could destroy all hope of victory. A reverend silence fell across the bridge of the Just Cause. The silence continued unabated for several minutes, as the sky was filled up by turbolaser fire and exploding mines.  
"All ships," said Wackbar quietly. "Reverse 1/3 speed."  
"Aye Aye, Sir! 


	5. Two Towers

Worm sat in his command chair on the Wormeara, the battle was going well, already eight enemy ships had been destroyed, and the enemy flagship was too badly damage to be of any use to the fight, for this they had lost only three Wormnaughts and about a dozen fighters.  
"Sir, W-Wings and coming in fast!" Worm and Welleon looked up, Worm Squadron had arrived.  
  
"Worm Three, watch yer six, Worm Five, take care of those bombers!" Dirt entered the fray, after quickly destroying two enemy fighters and damaging a Wormnaught, Dirt focused his attention on a group of Termite Avengers approaching the Worm fleet. Dirt veered his fighter into an inbound vector to the Guernica; after taking out their shields, Dirt vectored in a nearby Skua to finish them off. Dirt caught an Assault Bomber off guard, then vaped it. He scanned around...and saw the black behemoth he had seen earlier on a recon flight. There she is. She's the most powerful ship in the galaxy. Dirt noticed that on top of the ship was a maze of buildings like a large city, two towers dominated the skyline as he approached; destroying a guarding Interceptor, Worm aimed at a tower and fired his four torpedoes. The torpedoes exploded with little effect, but it had been weakened, a few laser shots and its communication nodes were in flames, the tower began to suffer structural failure. Four more torpedoes from another W-Wing finished the job. Worm dived under the dark ship, took out two Assault Bombers and a Termite Avenger, then headed to the ships superstructure. 


	6. Technical Difficulties

"Sir!" A cry came from a far-flung corner of the Wormeara's bridge. "The Emperor's Revenge is hailing."  
"Put it on vision console three." Worm ordered.  
A figure of an officer appeared. He had a look of concern.  
"Admiral, Sir. We have lost our forward auxiliary bridge. We have a coolant leak in sector 2. It's under control, but were having problems with our computers, sir."  
Worm thought for a moment, then turned to Welleon.  
"Captain, I'm going to the ship, ready my shuttle."  
"Yes, sir."  
A few minutes later Grand Admiral was standing amongst the wreckage of the auxiliary bridge. The ship could still operate with either the main bridge, or two auxiliary bridges. Starboard shields were at 89%, and bridge shields at 51%. They were getting hit hard, but only three enemy ships were still operational, the rest no more than flaming wrecks. All this for the loss of four hundred fighters, mostly Interceptors, and five Wormnaughts, plus three Worm Destroyers. Two more Wormnaughts were badly damaged.  
"Sir!" came a cry from his left. "We have four freighter sized craft on scanner." Worm looked through a window and saw three Medium Freighters and an Assault Shuttle. There was no guess to who it was. 


	7. How The Mighty Have Fallen

Warrde sat in the cockpit of the Wild Warrde, the Ebon Hawk, the Windwaker, and the Cassandra were all in position.  
"Power up Turbolasers. Waves, lets thin those fighters," he said to his copilot.  
"Yes, Sir."  
The Wild Warrde zoomed past several enemy fighters, destroying two of them; Warrde then sent his craft across the Emperor's Revenge perpendicular to the bridge at the rear. The Wild Warrde shuttered with every hit as it attempted to dodge a virtual hailstorm of Turbolaser fire. The Wild Warrde's Turbolasers were a nice addition, slowly tearing apart the Revenge. Warrde didn't notice the freighter's drifting across the great ship.  
"Sir, bridge straight ahead!" shouted Waves. Warrde looked up.  
"We're going in! Arm the tropedoes!" The six torpedo tubes were a recent addition to the ship, being only installed a few weeks before. After emptying his missiles on the bridge, both shield generators were down and heavy Turbolaser fire ftom the Outrider destroyed the bridge, which went up in a huge fireball, almost engulfing a W-Wing.  
"This is Commander Dirt Wantillese to..." A voice over Dirt's radio cut him off.  
"Nice to see you again Wantillese."  
"Warrde!" Dirt exclaimed. "Welcome to the party. Hey, the two of us can take thay last tower, I thinks it a backup bridge." Dirt failed to notice the ship was already flying straight into a planet.  
"Roger that, lets blast this thing."  
The two ships dodged barrage after barrage of fire, then Dirt took out two Termite Avengers. Eventually, Dirts lasers and Warrde's Turbolasers destroyed the tower. And with that, Worm, the last of the Grand Admirals, was gone. Welleon could only look on with horror from the Wormeara.  
"Sir! The destroyer, its crashing into the planet!" Dirt could now see the erratic flightpath of the once great ship. Bang.  
Dirt could feel himself being thrown around the cockpict of his W- Wing. One of his engines had been hit, Dirt could see two Avengers on his tail.  
"I can't shake him," he said to his pilots. "I'm going in."  
"Sir, with the ship crashing?"  
"Yes, there's room, it's a big planet, besides...they'd be crazy to follow us."  
Dirt put as much energy into his remaining engine while still keeping up his rear shields. After a few minutes, Dirts shaken up fighter had entered the planetary atmosphere. Dirt flew into a canyon, Worm 2 and 3 came and vaped the Avengers. Worm flew past a fork, then it came.  
"It's a trap!"  
Dirt looked back and saw a squadron of Termite Interceptors spray laser fire, Dirt's other engine went out, and the cockpict was now filled with smoke and flame. Dirt's left wing hit the ground first. Dirt crawled out of the cockpict.  
"Earth Worm Down! Repeat, we have Earth Worm Down!"  
Luckiley, no Termite ground forces arrived and all enemy ships were destroyed in mere minutes. After the fact, the remaining W-Wings of Worm Squadron searched for Dirt finding him by radio. "Commander, where are you?" asked Worm 2.  
"On the ground waiting for you to pick me up!" 


	8. Epilouge

Commander Dirt Wantillese remained in the navy after the war and was appointed Superentendint of the Starfighter Academy on Carditta where all fighter pilots are trained. He retired seventeen years after the Battle of Sigma-19 as a Rear Admiral.  
Worm 2 was promoted to Commander and put in charge of Worm Squadron after Dirt's promotion to Commodore. He was killed fighting pirates two years after Sigma-19.  
Admiral Wackbar retired from active servive six months after the battle.  
Councilor Weia was elected President of the newly formed Republic of Independent States, renamed to accommodate the millions of Termites assimilating into the populace. She served for ten years.  
Walon Warrde was pardoned for any wrongdoing by the RIS and continued as a legitimate trader. He retired nineteen years later.  
Captain Welleon retired after the surrender of the demoralised Termite Empire twenty-five days after the Battle of Sigma-19.  
The Wormeara escaped the mass scuttling of Termite warships immediately following the battle, it was taken over by the RIS and served as a training ship for many years, eventually becoming a museum.  
The Just Cause was too badely damaged to be of further use so it was scrapped a month after Sigma-19.  
The Outrider, the only other surviving Worm warship, served for another eight years in one form or another. It was later scrapped.  
The Scarabs were enslaved by the Termites and were later freed by Worm troops, they have now assimilated into the general populace. All Scarab Battlecruisers have been scuttled or scrapped.  
The Wreckage of the Emperor's Revenge was used for scrap metal by the local residents of the planet Keeting. By the end of President Weia's term, it had been totally depleted. Chunks of it are still popular souveneirs today.  
Worm Squadron continued as an elite fighting unit for many years, being re-amed 617 Squadron about a decade after Worm 2's death. It dumped its W-Wings shortly after Sigma-19 in favor of Skuas.  
The Wincom W-Wing is still flying today, but is now relegated to the training role. Some eventually got into the hands of criminals and privateers.  
Today Worms and Termites coexist peacefully, sharing the same legal entity of the RIS, some Termite Avengers were pressed into service with the new navy. Much has changed since the days of war, and interspecies cooperation is now the rule of thumb. 


End file.
